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Rentokil Initial
Rentokil Initial is a British business services group based in Crawley, England. It was founded in 1925 as a pest-control business. It subsequently expanded and diversified, in part through growth under the leadership of Sir Clive Thompson in the 1980s and 1990s, and in part through the acquisition of BET plc in 1996, into a business delivering a wide range of facilities management services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The company was founded in 1925 by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, professor of entomology at Imperial College, London, who had been investigating ways to kill death watch beetles that had infested Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster. Lefroy and his assistant produced an anti-woodworm fluid called Ento-Kill Fluids ("ento" coming from the Greek word for insect, ἔντομον entomon). That year he tried to register the name Entokill, but owing to existing trademarks, he chose Rentokil instead, and this became the name of his company, Rentokil Ltd. Lefroy was later killed in a laboratory accident when an experiment produced poisonous fumes.
British Ratin was established in 1927 as a pest control company by its Danish owner Sophus Berendsen A/S; the company used a bacillus developed by a Danish scientist George Neumann to control rats and mice. Demand for pest control services began extending beyond rodent control to insect control. British Ratin made its first acquisition, Chelsea Insecticides Ltd, in 1940. In 1957 British Ratin acquired Rentokil, and the combined businesses continued to use the Rentokil name, becoming Rentokil Laboratories Ltd. in 1960.
In 1960s Rentokil started global expansion including Kenya, Australia and 21 other countries across Europe, Australasia, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and South Africa.
Rentokil Group plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1969. Sophus Berendsen A/S retained a 50% holding in the group until the late 1990s. For many years Rentokil Initial achieved growth of about 20% each year under the leadership of then CEO, Sir Clive Thompson. During this period Rentokil Initial was voted "Britain's most admired" company.
In 1996, following the hostile takeover of its much larger competitor BET plc, the company became Rentokil Initial. The acquisition included the "Initial" laundry and washroom services business (founded in 1903), with Rentokil Initial now providing various services from laundry to washroom hygiene products. The "Initial" name derived from the fact that every towel was marked with the customer's initials, ensuring that customers only received their own towels.
Thompson relinquished the CEO role to James Wilde, with Thompson taking up the chairman's role, in January 2003. Thompson and Wilde both left the company in 2004, when the leadership was transferred to Brian McGowan as Chairman (appointed in 2004) and Doug Flynn as CEO (appointed in 2005). They made a number of structural changes to the company, including the closure of the main offices at Felcourt, near East Grinstead, relocating them to Belgrave House, Victoria, Central London and City Place, Gatwick. They also presided over a succession of profit warnings, mainly as a result of the problematic integration of the 2006 acquisition of Target Express into the existing City Link business.
The Rentokil Tropical Plants business, which had expanded to be an international brand through the acquisition of numerous smaller plant rental companies around the world, was rebranded as Ambius.
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Rentokil Initial
Rentokil Initial is a British business services group based in Crawley, England. It was founded in 1925 as a pest-control business. It subsequently expanded and diversified, in part through growth under the leadership of Sir Clive Thompson in the 1980s and 1990s, and in part through the acquisition of BET plc in 1996, into a business delivering a wide range of facilities management services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
The company was founded in 1925 by Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, professor of entomology at Imperial College, London, who had been investigating ways to kill death watch beetles that had infested Westminster Hall in the Palace of Westminster. Lefroy and his assistant produced an anti-woodworm fluid called Ento-Kill Fluids ("ento" coming from the Greek word for insect, ἔντομον entomon). That year he tried to register the name Entokill, but owing to existing trademarks, he chose Rentokil instead, and this became the name of his company, Rentokil Ltd. Lefroy was later killed in a laboratory accident when an experiment produced poisonous fumes.
British Ratin was established in 1927 as a pest control company by its Danish owner Sophus Berendsen A/S; the company used a bacillus developed by a Danish scientist George Neumann to control rats and mice. Demand for pest control services began extending beyond rodent control to insect control. British Ratin made its first acquisition, Chelsea Insecticides Ltd, in 1940. In 1957 British Ratin acquired Rentokil, and the combined businesses continued to use the Rentokil name, becoming Rentokil Laboratories Ltd. in 1960.
In 1960s Rentokil started global expansion including Kenya, Australia and 21 other countries across Europe, Australasia, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and South Africa.
Rentokil Group plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1969. Sophus Berendsen A/S retained a 50% holding in the group until the late 1990s. For many years Rentokil Initial achieved growth of about 20% each year under the leadership of then CEO, Sir Clive Thompson. During this period Rentokil Initial was voted "Britain's most admired" company.
In 1996, following the hostile takeover of its much larger competitor BET plc, the company became Rentokil Initial. The acquisition included the "Initial" laundry and washroom services business (founded in 1903), with Rentokil Initial now providing various services from laundry to washroom hygiene products. The "Initial" name derived from the fact that every towel was marked with the customer's initials, ensuring that customers only received their own towels.
Thompson relinquished the CEO role to James Wilde, with Thompson taking up the chairman's role, in January 2003. Thompson and Wilde both left the company in 2004, when the leadership was transferred to Brian McGowan as Chairman (appointed in 2004) and Doug Flynn as CEO (appointed in 2005). They made a number of structural changes to the company, including the closure of the main offices at Felcourt, near East Grinstead, relocating them to Belgrave House, Victoria, Central London and City Place, Gatwick. They also presided over a succession of profit warnings, mainly as a result of the problematic integration of the 2006 acquisition of Target Express into the existing City Link business.
The Rentokil Tropical Plants business, which had expanded to be an international brand through the acquisition of numerous smaller plant rental companies around the world, was rebranded as Ambius.